In a case that a cartridge holding a wound magnetic tape on which valuable data are recorded has been stored without using for a long period, a property of the magnetic tape is sometimes deteriorated. In the worst case, the recorded data are missing, are deteriorated or cannot be taken out.
As a first factor of the property deterioration, it is considered that a water vapor (moisture) absorbing chemical substances and dust in an air attaches to the magnetic tape, and it causes a growth of mold or a deterioration of the tape.
As a second factor of the property deterioration, it is considered that because an inside part of the wound magnetic tape is wound by an outside part of it to be pressed with a strong physical pressure, interfaces of the tape are stuck to each other, a material attached to a surface of the tape is pressed into it, or a base material of the tape is physically elongated and compressed, etc.
As means for preventing such a property deterioration of the magnetic tape, the following are exemplified: a means for discriminating a tape which has passed a certain period from the last rewinding and performing rewinding of the discriminated tape (see Patent Literature 1); a means for discriminating necessity of maintenance or exchange when an error rate exceeds a predetermined threshold by calculating the error rate based on information read by an information reading means of a magnetic tape (see Patent Literature 2); a means for determining a cleaning stage of a magnetic head based on an error frequency information which is the same as the above error rate (see Patent Literature 3); a means for controlling a Peltier element when a humidity detected by a temperature humidity sensor exceeds a predetermined value so that a temperature in a humidity controlling part rises (see Patent Literature 4), etc.